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I been wondering why there's so many acorns about lately. They make my bike feel unsteady on the commute in a few places there's so many!
Then I was reading in bed last night and...
At my advanced years and never having heard of (or previously noticed) a mast year!
That's all 🙂
Yes, it happens every 4/5 years. Applies to tree fruits and berries. These include acorns, rose hips, fruits such as elderberries, sloes, hawthorn berries etc. The birds are having a great autumn feast.
The downside is these trees and bushes have to recover as it takes huge energy and effort to produce this glut.
There's a stretch of pavement near me overhung with Sweet Chestnut trees. Our dog is getting quite proficient at picking a line through so he doesn't get his paws spiked!
I did have to pick him up last weekend though after the wind blew shit loads down all at once.
I was in Forest of Dean last week surrounded by oak trees and acorns were constantly popping out of the trees and covered the floor, I was expecting some to land on my head.
I recall some tale of a 7year cycle of beech trees mast in scandinavia ,the trees drop the seeds, the mice eat and breed, then the owls eat the mice, and breed, then theres too many of them, so they fly out to new territories, and so on, then the cycle starts again. Theres probably a forest fire in there too somewhere.
I got a bit of two wheel drift on acorns this weekend
There was also a lot of sweet chestnuts down and Ive never seen such large ones outside of a shop
If I hadn't started reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers (for that is the book), I would've been left wondering
Aha, interesting! And do beech trees and chestnuts have similar cycles??
In Canada, our house had an aluminium roof, and a hugely (unusually) tall oak tree overhanging. August/ September was a fun time every year, and there was a regular cycle over the years of normal acorn, huge number of acorns, no acorns at all, some acorns
Talking to my mom (a botanist) about fruit specifically but probably the same applies to the oaks, and she was saying the stress of the summer drought prompts the plants to have a big reproductive push, and that many will then fail afterwards due to that dry summer and the energy used in producing a glut of fruit.
That sounds more plausible to me, than some sort of in-built regular multi-year cycle (what would be the evolutionary pressure that resulted in that trait being selected....?)
Mast year innit.
And do beech trees and chestnuts have similar cycles??
- Woodlands across the UK are showing signs of this extraordinary abundance, with oak trees bursting with acorns and other trees producing heavy crops.
- The Woodland Trust's Nature's Calendar project is tracking records of ripe tree nuts and has given 2025 a high score for acorn abundance, indicating a mast year.
Looks like it.
plus
- Mast years are an evolutionary strategy for trees.
- Scientists believe that factors like the right combination of spring temperatures and rainfall can trigger trees to coordinate their efforts.
So agrees with pedlad's clever mum
These acorns are from three years ago and collected when out walking with my dog.
I grew some on a window ledge and transferred to an outdoor pot. Three years later to the day the original photo was taken I transferred the sapling to our local park in honour and memory.
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Talking to my mom (a botanist) about fruit specifically but probably the same applies to the oaks, and she was saying the stress of the summer drought prompts the plants to have a big reproductive push, and that many will then fail afterwards due to that dry summer and the energy used in producing a glut of fruit.
An aboriginal nature guide I spoke to once told me that the native (plants in Australia anyway) flower and fruit hard before a drought to provide for the lean times coming.
Don't talk to me about bloody acorns 
If I hadn't started reading Bewilderment by Richard Powers (for that is the book), I would've been left wondering
Have you read Isabella Tree's -Wilding. All about their family farm at knepp. Apart from the statistics in the book (which I didn't like), It's a great book and imo the way we should all try and go (maybe not with a wildboar or a herd of cattle).
I was hit on the head by an acorn last week. I don't know how high it fell from but it bloody hurt and made a very loud "ping" when it hit me.
Love that planting an oak tree! Superb
I like the idea of planting some, might collect a few sweet Chestnuts and acorns on my way out this evening.
When junior was little he came home with some acorns. Rather than bin them I buried them in a flower bed. I'd forgotten them until I noticed an oak leaf when weeding. I transplanted into the middle of the lawn and a couple of decades later here it is:
It's an amazing year for acorns and all sorts of tree seeds and fruits.
Last year was really lean which has been affecting tree availability for planting this year. Looking promising for the following planting season.
I’ve got some acorns on the table in front of me, that I’m planning on planting, hopefully they’ll germinate. I’ve noticed loads of acorns, out for a walk recently there were lots of hazelnuts that had fallen so I picked a few handfuls up, and the nuts are very juicy, and my little apple tree, which my parents bought in a pot years ago, and which I’ve struggled to keep going, this year, following being told what I was doing wrong as regards feeding and watering, has responded by producing more apples than in its entire life! Two top branches broke off, and although they were fairly small, I got twenty apples from them. It got so heavy with apples the weight was pulling the tree over, so I had to tether it in place, and a very windy day recently had me out picking all the apples. I think I’ve ultimately got five or six dozen apples off a seven foot tall tree in a pot!
And they’re delicious! Slightly tart, and incredibly juicy, I’ve eaten more apples in the last month than I have in literally years.
My efforts have been richly rewarded for looking after it.
This shows how it’s leaning over, it should be vertical.
I've just swept up a third barrow load from our garden. Anyone know a use for them (acorns that is)?
I like the idea of planting some, might collect a few sweet Chestnuts and acorns on my way out this evening.
That first oak I grew utterly amazed me that I was responsible for making a future oak tree, I don't know what the future holds for that little sapling but I do know that acorn had no chance of growing on the footpath where it had landed.
I'm not green fingered at all and tend to end up killing most houseplants but acorns/oaks seem really easy!
I bought a bag of cheap normal compost from B&M and shoved an acorn a few cm's under the surface of compost in some random plantpots I had and then left on a window sill with occasional watering. Transfer them outside in the spring and they seem to do well. Alongside the 3year that I planted I have a number of two and one year olds from successive years. I've just potted some acorns from last week's walk so I now have a 4year production line of future oak trees!
I've never had any luck with conkers/horse chestnuts even after sticking them in the freezer and fridge for a month or so before potting.
It's so easy to plant an oak. Pick the acorns while green. Pop into a bowl of water, the healthy acorns will sink.
Plant in any soil, try in a sunny area with good drainage and make sure they are the correct way up (if they have the little cover on that is the base bit).
I've got some lovely saplings in pots, in early winter I pot them on.
Whilst out with the dog last weekend I filled two pockets full with big chestnuts (Barbour pockets so sizeable amount). After roasting in oven I quickly became frustrated how fiddly they are to peel.
I decided I didn't have the patience to cook anymore. So next walk I scattered the chestnuts whilst on a mountain side devastated by a fire earlier this year. Hopefully in a few years I'll notice some managed to grow.
There are quite a few young trees I pass which I had collected the chestnuts and acorns for and grown. Quite satisfying to see then in full leaf each year.
I've never had any luck with conkers/horse chestnuts even after sticking them in the freezer and fridge for a month or so before potting.
Some of the chestnuts I collected had already split the shells and were beginning to sprout.
I just push them into pot of soil from the old tomatoes plant in greenhouse. Give a bit of a soak .. they usually start growing with month or two. I certainly haven't got green fingers for anything more complicated.
Next summer: Squirrels